Obama Says N.C. LGBT Law Should Be Tossed

(CN) - President Barack Obama on Friday called on North Carolina lawmakers to overturn a controversial law that requires transgender people to use public bathrooms conforming to the sex on their birth certificates.

The president made his feelings known during a news conference in London, where he supporting Prime Minister David Cameron's efforts to have Britain vote to remain in the European Union.

The president and first lady were also scheduled to have tea with Queen Elizabeth to celebrate her 90th birthday, and dinner with Prince William and Kate Middleton.

But when a reporter mentioned that the United Kingdom had issued a travel advisory this morning warning British citizens that they may face discrimination in some U.S. states, the president was less than sanguine.

Obama criticized the law in North Carolina, which also restricts protections for LGBT people, and others like it that have been proposed in legislatures throughout the Southeast.

While assuring the British people that they would be treated with "extraordinary hospitality" if they visited the United States, he said the laws "are wrong and should be overturned."

But the president's comments didn't go down well with at least one Republican lawmaker in North Carolina.

Phil Berger, President Pro Tempore of the N.C. state senate, responded to the comments in a press release and on Facebook by saying "not every father has the luxury of secret service agents protecting his daughters' right to privacy in the girls' bathroom."

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